Sting

She stopped and lowered her head to stare at her clasped hands. Deputy Morrow had given her a bottle of hand sanitizer to clean them with, but bloodstains were still evident.

She described how Kinnard had pulled out the blade and she’d packed the wound as well as she could, how his condition continued to worsen throughout the night, how his fever spiked.

“Then that deputy sheriff arrived,” she said. “I begged Mr. Kinnard to surrender. I told him that I didn’t want to be responsible for another death. For anyone’s death, including his. That’s when he asked me for the name of the most senior FBI agent who’d interviewed me about Josh. He said he wouldn’t surrender to anyone else. I gave him your name. You know the rest.”

Joe was aware that she’d left a dozen or more gaps wider than the Grand Canyon, but she looked done in, and by now they were on the outskirts of the city.

He said, “Thank you, Ms. Bennett. I know you’re exhausted and that having to talk about the experience couldn’t have been pleasant.” He looked over at Hick. “You have anything specific to ask?”

“I do.” He addressed her in the mirror. “That unknown caller on Friday night. You said that before Kinnard hid your phone, he tried to reach the person.”

She nodded. “Like every other time, no one answered. He thought it was probably Josh who’d called me, trying to set up a rendezvous with either him or a messenger who would give me information about where he was going, something like that.”

“You told him it wasn’t Josh.”

“I told him I couldn’t be certain, but that I didn’t think so.”

“He pressured you to tell him who it was.”

“That’s right. He wanted me to admit that it was Josh.”

“Why? Why was Kinnard so hip to connect with your brother?”

“He thought Josh might pay more to keep me alive than Panella was paying to have me killed.”

“More than two million?” Joe asked.

“Mr. Kinnard is convinced that Josh has the stolen money, not Panella. I tried to disabuse him of that.”

“But his intention was to bargain with Josh for your life?”

“Yes. But he never got the opportunity.”

“Josh didn’t answer Kinnard’s calls.”

“No one did. And for the hundredth time, I don’t know that it was Josh.”

Joe looked over at Hick before coming back to her. “Why don’t you simply tell us where he is, Ms. Bennett?”

“Where Josh is? I don’t know!”

“Not Josh. Tell us where to find Billy Panella.”

“Panella? I have no earthly idea.”

It wasn’t until that moment that she became aware that they had pulled under the porte cochere of a downtown hotel. She looked at the two of them with bewilderment.

“What’s this? Why are we here?”

“We took the liberty of booking you a room.”

“Why?”

“So you can get cleaned up, rest, sleep, have a couple good meals, take it easy. We’ll need to interview you again tomorrow.”

She looked at Joe, then over at Hick, then back at him, now less puzzled than wary. “I have a small apartment attached to my office at Extravaganza for when I stay over. I thought that’s where you were taking me.”

“Extravaganza has media camped around it in a quarter-mile radius. So does your house in Tobias. Staying here will be hassle free. You’ll have room service. It’s closer to our office where we’ll reconvene first thing. A female marshal is bringing you some clothes from your Tobias house. In fact—” Joe checked his wristwatch “—she should be waiting for you in your room.”